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      Social Group Effects on the Emergence of Communicative Conventions and Language Complexity

      1 , 2 , 3 , 4
      Journal of Language Evolution
      Oxford University Press (OUP)

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          Language Structure Is Partly Determined by Social Structure

          Background Languages differ greatly both in their syntactic and morphological systems and in the social environments in which they exist. We challenge the view that language grammars are unrelated to social environments in which they are learned and used. Methodology/Principal Findings We conducted a statistical analysis of >2,000 languages using a combination of demographic sources and the World Atlas of Language Structures— a database of structural language properties. We found strong relationships between linguistic factors related to morphological complexity, and demographic/socio-historical factors such as the number of language users, geographic spread, and degree of language contact. The analyses suggest that languages spoken by large groups have simpler inflectional morphology than languages spoken by smaller groups as measured on a variety of factors such as case systems and complexity of conjugations. Additionally, languages spoken by large groups are much more likely to use lexical strategies in place of inflectional morphology to encode evidentiality, negation, aspect, and possession. Our findings indicate that just as biological organisms are shaped by ecological niches, language structures appear to adapt to the environment (niche) in which they are being learned and used. As adults learn a language, features that are difficult for them to acquire, are less likely to be passed on to subsequent learners. Languages used for communication in large groups that include adult learners appear to have been subjected to such selection. Conversely, the morphological complexity common to languages used in small groups increases redundancy which may facilitate language learning by infants. Conclusions/Significance We hypothesize that language structures are subjected to different evolutionary pressures in different social environments. Just as biological organisms are shaped by ecological niches, language structures appear to adapt to the environment (niche) in which they are being learned and used. The proposed Linguistic Niche Hypothesis has implications for answering the broad question of why languages differ in the way they do and makes empirical predictions regarding language acquisition capacities of children versus adults.
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            Understanding by addressees and overhearers

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              Foundations of representation: where might graphical symbol systems come from?

              It has been suggested that iconic graphical signs evolve into symbolic graphical signs through repeated usage. This article reports a series of interactive graphical communication experiments using a 'pictionary' task to establish the conditions under which the evolution might occur. Experiment 1 rules out a simple repetition based account in favor of an account that requires feedback and interaction between communicators. Experiment 2 shows how the degree of interaction affects the evolution of signs according to a process of grounding. Experiment 3 confirms the prediction that those not involved directly in the interaction have trouble interpreting the graphical signs produced in Experiment 1. On the basis of these results, this article argues that icons evolve into symbols as a consequence of the systematic shift in the locus of information from the sign to the users' memory of the sign's usage supported by an interactive grounding process. 2007 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal of Language Evolution
                Oxford University Press (OUP)
                2058-458X
                January 2019
                January 01 2019
                October 30 2018
                January 2019
                January 01 2019
                October 30 2018
                : 4
                : 1
                : 1-18
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
                [2 ]Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
                [3 ]School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh
                [4 ]School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh, UK
                Article
                10.1093/jole/lzy010
                7ed6af65-ae3d-4eb5-8a3d-b72cb6df5f60
                © 2018

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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